POPPS Procedure - I Miss Fentanyl Already

I had my POPPS procedure today. First, yesterday they called me to move me up an hour, so I had to be there at 8 instead of 9. They were running late, though, and I napped in my gown with my IV started until they came to get me for the procedure at 10:45. Ugh. Erin was there (my physical therapist). I think that was good for both of us. I know she wanted to meet Dr. Wasudev (pronounced woss-uh-day), and it was helpful to have someone in the room who sees me weekly and knows where my trigger points are.

When they first started my IV in the room-before-the-room, I asked what they were going to give me. The nurse told me two things, and I said, "Can I have fentanyl?" She said I could ask them. AND THEY GAVE IT TO ME! Who knew - all you have to do is ask for the good stuff. Fentanyl is the drug that lasts the longest for me. I had it for my colonoscopy in July 2008 (fun fact: Blogger doesn't recognize fentanyl or colonoscopy as words - really?). That was back when I was on Vicodin (doesn't recognize that word, either) every two hours, but I didn't need a pain pill for 12 hours after that.

When I got home from the procedure, I had a bit of soreness at the lower left quadrant injection site (close to my shingles scar and close to where the left ovary is), but that was it. No other pain. I was hoping it would last, but I can tell the fentanyl is wearing off and my old pain is coming back. Dr. Wasudev said it would take about 3 days to get the full effects of the injections, so I'm hopeful.

Oh, but I'm pretty sure some of those needles went up my ass. Yay. The injections were a mixture of lidocaine and epinephrine. OK, lidocaine is not recognized, but epinephrine is. Guess a lot more people blog about epinephrine.

PT Update

All this standing around in heels for the funeral and visitation really did a number on me. I took the morning after the funeral off to recuperate, but I probably should've taken longer.

I had a bad flare-up over the weekend and had to take one of my pills, but other than that I've just noticed a lot of tightness. My abs were a mess at PT, especially on the sides. We're doing pool work again next week. Hopefully that will help.

Friday I had another eye stinging incident, and I've had intermittent bad pressure headaches. Hopefully that's all done with.

I'm Gonna Go All Gollum on This ER: IT BURNS US!

I had another incident of eye burning today, but this one occurred while I was driving on the interstate. I couldn't keep my eyes open and was crying frantically while trying to find a spot to pull over (it was where 65 and 40 meet). They said my eyes looked great, but of course I was in the waiting room for so long that the stinging had stopped by the time I saw the doctor - again it took about 2 1/2 hours. I'm supposed to follow up with an eye doctor, but I don't have vision insurance because I have perfect vision. Fuck a whole bunch of this. Ha. I typed "fuck" instead of "bunch" and had to backspace. At least I didn't type gibberish and have to backspace.

I'm Dizzy, Must Be Thursday!

I'm dizzy again, just like last Thursday, and the Thursday before that, and the one before that...you get the idea. I'm going to go ahead and say I'll be dizzy next Thursday because I'm getting sedated. HELLS YEAH!

Not much going on in the pain department. Same as usual. A few pains a little higher up than usual, and some intermittent chest pain on the left side, but other than that, it's been the usual. Considering the family crisis, I'm impressed by stress hasn't screwed everything up to umpteen degrees like it usually does. I suppose we shall call that progress.

"She's a Cook, but She Talks Like a Nurse"

Yep, that's what my new doctor said about me today. He wants to start doing steroid injections next week. Well, he wants to start this week, but I have to work. They usually do 25-30 injections each sitting. I'll be sedated. I'm going to ask for fentanyl. No, I'm not kidding. If the injections don't work, at least I'll feel better from the sedation.

The physical exam was awful. WARNING: THE NEXT SENTENCE IS ABOUT MY ASS. I had an extreme amount of pain with the rectal exam, which is the first one I'd had in about a year and a half. I had the normal pain with the pelvic exam as well.

He calls it POPSS syndrome - pain over the pubis and surrounding structures. Yeah. I think that's just a way to come up with a cute acronym. I have an acronym, too: PAIN syndrome. Pain Always Indefinitely Now! See! I can be cute, too!

The exam made me cry. That's only significant because when I got home later and cried, my eyes felt like they were on fire. It was as though the burning/stinging pain from my hands on Sunday had moved up to my eyes. I still have the stinging sensations in my hands, forearms, and calves intermittently, but when my eyes were open, it felt like my eyeballs were being flushed with rubbing alcohol. I had to lie down with my eyes closed applying a cold compress for TWO AND A HALF HOURS before the pain was gone. That made calling to cancel PT loads of fun - glad Michael was there to dial for me.

Bam Bam Bam Bam, Ba-Bam Bam Bam Bam, I Wanna Be Sedated

I looked up my new doctor online, and apparently he's a surgeon. This would've been useful to know at some point sooner than T minus 10 hours to appointment time. The good news is if he does injections, they come with IV sedation (according to the Web site). SCORE! If I could just be sedated all the time, I wouldn't be in pain. Sedation every two weeks...sounds like I'm going to need a designated driver.

Woke up at about a 7 today, got to work and took half a pain pill, and the rest of the day wasn't too bad. Had a few flare-ups but nothing major. Also, I'm not sleeping worth a damn. In theory, something is getting called in to the pharmacy. Hopefully something that works.

I'm on FIRE!

OK, I'm not actually on fire, but today at work my hands had this terrible burning sensation. It started on the backs of my fingers between the last knuckle and my palm. Then it spread to the outside of my palm, then the other side of my hand. Now I'm having mild burning in my forearms. WHAT THE HELL?! My skin is intermittently red and splotchy where the burning is. I think it must be some kind of reaction to a chemical or something, but we aren't using anything new in the kitchen. It happened to my hands once before after wearing powdered gloves for a long time, but we stopped using powdered gloves months ago.

The forearm thing happened literally right before I started typing this. I had to keep dunking my hands in a half pan of ice water at work to stop the burning. Heat made it way worse (going outside, warm water, etc.). I hope it's just a reaction or some nerve thing, because those are easy fixes.

This has been one of my best weeks in terms of pain. I haven't gotten above a 7. I think hot yoga is helping, and it's cheaper than my doctor, so I'm probably going to try to get a month unlimited and see if that helps.

Dear God, this burning needs to stop. That is all.